2
In the late 1780’s, Europe watched in fascinated horror as the once proud monarchy of
France began its spiral down into oblivion, and eventually, death. Once a proud, wealthy, and
powerful nation, France’s kings made decision after decision that cast their country into turmoil.
Reigning as an absolute monarchy in an era inspired to gain new heights of equality by the
American Declaration of Independence and the ideas contained therein, France was rapidly
becoming outdated. As external forces compounded the worsening of conditions originally
created by the decisions of the monarchy, the people of France saw little choice but to rebel.
While financial insecurity was the most apparent cause of the uprisings, droughts in the
countryside and the exploitation of the Third Estate by a king who saw himself as the only, God-
given authority in their country compounded it.
France saw its period of greatest growth in centuries under the rule of the Sun King,
Louis XIV. Called the Sun King in reference to his glorious reign as absolute sovereign and his
own portrayal of his might through images of him portrayed figuratively as the sun of France,
Louis XIV used his ample power to set aside the democratic processes of France and secure for
himself the absolute rule of his country.
Although by today’s standards the Sun King would most likely be called a despot or
dictator, he was more than capable of creating an era of wealth and prosperity for his people. The
common citizenry was happy to overlook Louis XIV’s shift into an absolute monarchy because
he made their lives better and more profitable and maintained an image in the world at large of
France as a power with no equal. His nobles too were willing to put up with his absolute
monarchy as well because of the extravagant lifestyle he was able to cultivate for them. Overall,
the country prospered under their monarch, and they loved him for that prosperity.
3
Louis XIV passed on his absolute monarchy to his son, Louis XV, who was his father’s
equal in extravagant lifestyle and spending, but not in leadership. So great was his father’s
legacy, however, that despite his wild lifestyle and spending habits for his kingdom, Louis XV
was still able to maintain his country’s powerful image up until his death. He knew, though, that
his rule was flawed, as he is famously said on his deathbed: “After me, the deluge.” Louis XV
was aware that his country was headed towards tribulations, and that his son was not up to the
task of handling them.
King Louis XVI desired to be every bit the powerful ruler that his father and grandfather
were. Used to a lifestyle of glamour and obscene displays of wealth, Louis XVI and his wife
Marie Antoinette famously enjoyed all the wealth and notoriety that France had to offer, even
when all of it began to disappear.
It is important to note that in the early 1780’s, even though the French government was
rapidly losing money, “The fluctuating economic activity in the 1770s and 1780s had not made
most peasants poorer and had not prevented the bourgeoisie from increasing its wealth”1. Indeed,
many of the bourgeoisie were prospering, and a few had even joined the ranks of nobility
through their increases in wealth. The issue was not the private sector, it was government
spending that was the issue.
Contrary to popular opinion, it was not Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette’s extravagant
lifestyle at court that was so rapidly draining funds from the royal treasury; it was maintaining
France’s place as a world power and the foremost of European monarchies. Particularly draining
was their rivalry with their habitual foe, Britain. Throughout the years, “Maintaining that status
1 von Güttner, D. (2021). French Revolution: The Basics (1st ed.). Routledge.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003157748
4
caused a permanent deficit in the royal finances”2, which the French tax system was woefully
inadequate to deal with. France was beginning to lose face, and the confidence the French people
had in their king was rapidly fading. The people desired a change but change in this case brought
a great deal of contention.
France’s system of collecting taxes was antiquated, and mostly relied on traditional terms
that heavily favored the nobility and clergy. To finance their involvement in multiple wars such
as the War of Austrian Succession, the American War for Independence, and the Seven Years
War, the king was forced to increase his spending. However, “Increased spending was not
financed by increasing taxes but had to be financed by debt”3, and France did not have the
advantage of a national bank that could loan money to the government at lower-than-normal
rates like Britain did. To change this, Louis would have to clash with his nobility.
There were issues with this in the king’s eyes though. Namely, doing so would grant his
nobility more power than they had wielded since before his grandfather was king, and “The
members of French nobility were not willing to agree to reform unless the king considerably
increased their political power”4. For a king used to absolute power, this was unacceptable. The
nobles saw it as unacceptable for them to be required to pay taxes which their ancestors had
traditionally never been required to pay just to prop up their ailing king, at least without some
form of compensation.
2 von Güttner, D. (2021). French Revolution: The Basics (1st ed.). Routledge.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003157748
3 Waldinger, M. “Let them eat cake”: drought, peasant uprisings, and demand for
institutional change in the French Revolution.0J Econ Growth029, 41–77 (2024).
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10887-023-09230-y
4 Waldinger, M. “Let them eat cake”: drought, peasant uprisings, and demand for
institutional change in the French Revolution.0J Econ Growth029, 41–77 (2024).
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10887-023-09230-y
5
To make matters worse, the Third Estate, composed entirely of common folk and widely
regarded as the backbone of France, was becoming disgruntled with the political situation in
their country. Already shouldering most of the tax burden while sharing almost none of the
power, the commoners were growing restless. They were already suffering from a drought that
struck France in 1788, causing the price of food to skyrocket. This sparked several peasant
revolts in the countryside, revealing that the people of the lower classes would not be willing to
quietly accept their lot for too much longer.
Finally in 1789, King Louis XVI, feeling incredible pressure from his nobles, his people,
and from the economy itself, called the Estates General into session to hopefully resolve the
stalemate between himself and the nobility over the necessary changes to the tax system.
Traditionally, the Estates General was organized into three separate councils, each with its own
vote. Obviously, with the clergy forming the First Estate and the nobility forming the Second
Estate, the Third Estate, common people of France who made of 97% of the population, was left
at a disadvantage with this structuring.
“In Old Regime France, workers held a place at the bottom of the social hierarchy”5,
which left the people extraordinarily little perceived power with which to shift their position in
the hierarchy of France. In fact, earlier in 1787 in response to an attempt by Parlement to halt a
kingly decree, Louis XVI issued a statement saying that his will was absolute, and there was
nothing that they could accomplish that could ever change that. They served at his whim only.
Having found themselves ignored, exploited, and outright harmed; the Third Estate had
finally had enough. “The Rise of the Third Estate underscores the growing power and
5 Hodson, Christopher. ""In Praise of the Third Estate": Religious and Social Imagery in
the Early French Revolution."0Eighteenth-Century Studies034, no. 3 (2001): 337-
362. https://doi.org/10.1353/ecs.2001.0026.
6
assertiveness of the common people of France”6, as they were now willing to do whatever it took
to achieve a modicum of equality. To encourage this bold new attitude, the new ideology of the
Enlightenment was fast spreading throughout France, aided by the fact that “The price of
pamphlets was low, making them available to all levels of society”7. No longer were only the
upper classes reading literature and benefiting from it, now the lower levels of society were
gaining knowledge and applying it to their lives as well.
Across the Atlantic, the newly birthed republic of the United States of America was
borrowing a number of ideals from the Enlightenment thinkers to draft their Declaration of
Independence, as well as their foundational documents of government. The French people,
watching as the Americans secured freedom for themselves from a despotic government that
cared little for them, resolved to take those freedoms for themselves.
Taking a stance for equal representation, the Third Estate began petitioning for new
voting measures that would make their votes equal to the votes of the upper classes. However,
the king continually refused to collaborate with them, prompting them to form the National
Assembly, and force his hand. Repeatedly, the people of France found themselves being put
down by the two higher Estates. In response, they felt that they had no other recourse than to
radically change their government, even to the extent of abolishing it and starting anew.
Bibliography
6 James Hardy, "French Revolution: History, Timeline, Causes, and Outcomes",0History
Cooperative, September 28, 2020,0https://historycooperative.org/the-french-
revolution/. Accessed July 8, 2024
7 Hodson, Christopher. ""In Praise of the Third Estate": Religious and Social Imagery in
the Early French Revolution."0Eighteenth-Century Studies034, no. 3 (2001): 337-
362. https://doi.org/10.1353/ecs.2001.0026.
7
Hodson, Christopher. ""In Praise of the Third Estate": Religious and Social Imagery in the Early
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